Abstract or Table of Contents

summary: the present study attempts to go beyond the traditional detection of simple correlations between sociological variables on the one side and indicators of health and illness on the other side. its aim is to show at the instance of a specificpopulation how social structural conditions become "translated" into personal well-being or illness. it concentrates, thereby, not only on social aspects of health and illness but tries to take the concept of personal well-being seriously and to elaborate its determination through a person's everyday experience in work and family life. well-being is measured by a question on general happiness and a scale of positive feeling states, health disturbances are measured by a scale of negative feelingstates and a scale of psychological distress derived from a list of illness symptoms. the concentration on aspects of 'social vulnerability', as it is manifested clearly in the investigated group of 1.370 young married and employed women in austria,makes it also possible to utilize the findings for health and social policy measures.;